Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work
Posted on Mar 4th, 2010 by Tony Gentilcore1. What Women Want- Bret Contreras
I haven’t the faintest idea, but Bret shares some great insight on how to help women achieve a badonkadonk that just won’t quit, which is a start. Like Bret, I too believe that for the bulk of women out there, squats, deadlifts, and various single leg exercises will work wonders. Unfortunately, for many, they spend an inordinate amount of time using those hip abductor/adductor machines and performing 1/4 squats in the Smith machine, that they’re often perplexed as to why their butt looks like a 2×4.
That being said, however, many of the exercises that are great for the glutes, are also great at developing the thighs. Not a bad thing per se, but if you want to turn a woman off completely to strength training, make it so she can’t get her favorite pair of jeans past her knees. And you thought pissing on the toilet seat made her mad?
In any case, Bret sheds some light on the topic and I thought it was fantastic.
2. 4 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know- Me
I can’t remember whether or not I linked to this article before, so forgive me if I have. Either way, this is probably one of my more popular articles I have ever written. And, considering the fact that I’m trying to include more female related content, this fits it quite nicely.
3. Hip Mobility: Femoral Anteversion- Bill Hartman
Bill’s often been called one of the smartest minds in the industry- and with good reason.
4. Never Eat Alone- Keith Ferrazzi
I’m always asked by incoming trainers and strength coaches what books they should read to get better. Sure, I’ll recommend the geeky stuff, but being a good trainer and coach is just as much about becoming a better “people person” and having the ability to develop relationships as it is being able to name off insertion and origins of muscles. Besides, if you have the personality of a bowling ball, that certainly isn’t going to help matters. This one is easily in my top 10.
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Comments ( 2 )
P. J. Striet added these pithy words on Mar 4th, 2010 at 1:19 pm |Tony:
I don’t know how I missed that 4 things your girlfriend should know article but it’s outstanding. I’m printing it off and putting it in the waiting area of my facility. If I have to argue one more with someone about yoga and pilates I’m going to beat myself over the head with a hoe handle.
On a related note, if you think about the methods, principles and modalities the “I don’t want to get big and bulky” crowd uses, it’s so ass backwards it’s laughable. Let’s face it, being “bulky” is basically carrying too much body fat so you can’t see the contour and shape of the muscle (I can’t believe I just used those two words) from beneath the skin. Well, if you don’t want to look “bulky”, you need to lose body fat. If you want to lose body fat through activity (or at least have it make a significant contribution), common sense dictates you should pick methods and implement principles which actually allow you to expend some energy (real “brain buster” there).
Now, let’s look at the typical “I don’t want to get big and bulky” methods:
1. Yoga and pilates (Tony covered this)
2. Single joint machine exercies: common sense dictates one will burn more calories using multiple muscle groups vs. a single muscle group while performing an exercise.
3. Light resistance: again, common sense dictates it takes more energy (burns more calories) to lift 10 lbs. vs. 5 lbs., 40 lbs. vs. 20 lbs., etc.
4. High reps: actually, I don’t have a problem with high reps, because more reps equals more movmement equals more calories burned. What I do have a problem with is high reps combined with #3 above. It’s one thing thing to do a set of 20 rep squats with a resistance which only allows for 21 or 22 reps in good form, and quite another to do a 15 rep set of tricep kickbacks with a weight (1-3 lb. neoprene dumbbells)which one could perform 100 repetitions with.
In my opinion, it appears the “I don’t want to get big and bulky” methods are, in fact making more people “big and bulky”. Food for thought. It’s the equivalent of “I don’t want to get too strong”, and then I train with weight in excess of 85% of my maximum. Common sense and logic go a long way, don’t they?
Sabine added these pithy words on Mar 5th, 2010 at 3:00 am |I love this post! The links are great and the “4 things your girlfriend should know” article is soooo awesome! I posted it on my blog and I’m gonna show it to my boyfriend. He should be so happy that it was my idea to start doing deadlifts and lunges and squats and bench presses.
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Tony Gentilcore is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Currently residing in the greater Boston area and co-founder of